Participated · Series C · Aug 2018

Akili Interactive develops prescription digital therapeutics, including EndeavorRx, the first-and-only FDA‑cleared treatment delivered through a video game experience for children with ADHD. EndeavorRx is built on Akili’s Selective Stimulus Management Engine (SSME) and uses adaptive algorithms to target attentional control systems. The company plans to scale go-to-market efforts to bring EndeavorRx to families and healthcare professionals, expand its global footprint in ADHD and beyond, and advance a pipeline of prescription digital therapeutics for chronic and acute cognitive disorders. Akili emphasizes clinical validation, citing positive results in prospective randomized, controlled trials and extensive clinical studies. Financially, the company announced $160M in combined equity and debt financing—$110M Series D equity and a credit facility of up to $50M with Silicon Valley Bank—and reports total equity funding to date of $230M. The funding is intended to support commercialization, technology development, clinical research, and international expansion. Akili develops prescription digital medicines that embed targeted stimuli into immersive action video game experiences to treat conditions across neurology and psychiatry. Its lead program, AKL-T01 for pediatric ADHD, is under FDA review following positive pivotal study topline results announced in December 2017. If cleared, AKL-T01 would be the first prescription video game to treat a medical condition and the first prescription digital medicine for children with ADHD. The company has additional programs in Major Depressive Disorder, multiple sclerosis and various inflammatory diseases, and expects results from a Phase 2 MDD study and an MS pilot by the end of 2018. Akili is also developing complementary clinical monitors and measurement-based care applications. The company was founded by PureTech Health and is advancing its platform with recent equity financing. Akili Interactive develops prescription digital treatments that deliver therapeutic activity through action video game experiences. The company is building a broad pipeline of programs on its patented technology platform to treat cognitive deficits and symptoms across neurology and psychiatry, including ADHD, major depressive disorder, autism spectrum disorder and various inflammatory diseases. Its lead candidate is AKL‑T01 and it is also developing complementary clinical monitors and measurement‑based care applications. Akili was founded by PureTech Health and is led by CEO Eddie Martucci, Ph.D. The company used the financing to advance digital treatment candidates through regulatory milestones, prepare for commercial launch, and to broaden its product pipeline, including programs in depression and multiple sclerosis. Akili builds clinically validated cognitive treatments and assessments delivered through an action video‑game interface, based on its Project: EVO platform licensed from Dr. Adam Gazzaley at UCSF. The company is clinical‑stage and is conducting a pivotal STARS‑ADHD trial of Project: EVO in pediatric ADHD with plans to seek FDA approval if results are favorable. Akili has multiple clinical studies across ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, depression, Alzheimer’s disease, and traumatic brain injury, and has expanded into neurodegeneration indications including Parkinson’s disease, major depressive disorder, and multiple sclerosis. The platform is designed to target core neurological processing and can adapt difficulty in real time for remote use without physician calibration. Akili plans to use the new funds to support and expand clinical development into new areas, increase focus on neurodegeneration, and build out its commercial infrastructure as it nears market with late‑stage products. The company was founded by PureTech Health together with neuroscientists and game designers and has strategic partnerships with Pfizer and Autism Speaks and investment from Shire PLC. Akili develops mobile software-based treatments and monitors designed to function as action video games, targeting cognitive disorders with adaptive, medical-grade software. Its lead product candidate, Project: EVO, is licensed from Dr. Adam Gazzaley's lab at UCSF and was previously published as a Nature cover story. The platform targets cognitive interference processing and adapts difficulty in real time to allow wide-ranging ability levels to use the product without physician calibration or extra hardware. Akili is conducting multiple clinical trials across pediatric ADHD, autism spectrum disorder (in collaboration with Autism Speaks), depression, Alzheimer’s disease (in collaboration with Pfizer) and traumatic brain injury. A recent open-label pilot in pediatric ADHD showed improvements in attention, inhibition and working memory, and the company plans a large randomized pivotal study with results expected in 2017. The company announced $30.5 million in new equity investments to support further clinical development and to build commercial infrastructure toward potential FDA clearance and a planned product launch in 2017.

Participated · Equity · Apr 2018

Symphony offers secure messaging, voice, video and collaboration tools designed for bankers and financial institutions, with mobile and desktop apps and an ecosystem of bots and integrations. The company has expanded beyond its US home market into Europe and Asia and serves about 425,000 users across roughly 400 companies. Symphony has developed workflow and automation products such as Symphony Market Solutions and is seeing significant bot usage (around 1,000 bots on the platform). The startup plans to use the new funding to grow platform functionality both organically and via acquisitions, citing market intelligence and IT-integration targets. It is also exploring integrations with consumer messaging apps like WhatsApp and WeChat and running trials with government groups, while gaining traction in adjacent verticals such as accounting and legal. Symphony’s customer-investor base uses the platform for secure, auditable communication and to integrate data across networks. Symphony provides a secure team collaboration platform including encrypted real-time collaboration (Symphony Meetings) with audio, video, application and screen-sharing plus a developer platform for apps and bots. The company reports adoption by over 300 firms and 320,000 users and says demand is strong in information-sensitive markets. Symphony intends to accelerate its product roadmap and expand its core offering for financial institutions while broadening into insurance, legal, healthcare services and government. The company will use the new capital to speed growth, expand workflow capabilities, and support digital transformation initiatives for enterprise customers. Symphony highlights recent global expansion and new offices to service users and tap technology talent. Symphony provides a secure, enterprise messaging platform built to meet the encryption and reporting requirements of financial services firms, enabling internal and external communications on a single framework. The product includes messaging, voice and video chat, and a marketplace of third‑party data and content integrations such as Dow Jones, Selerity, Chart IQ, and S&P market intelligence. Symphony has a freemium model (free users are in the thousands) and a paid tier that starts at $15/user/month; the company reports 200,000 paying customers and 160 financial‑services company customers. The company has primarily targeted banks and investment firms through strategic partnerships with investor‑clients. Symphony plans to use new funding to expand into adjacent regulated verticals such as legal, accounting and healthcare. The company has raised a total of $229 million to date and is now valued at over $1 billion. Symphony offers a trusted, secure and compliant workflow communications platform that helps individuals, teams and organizations communicate and collaborate while meeting complex data security and regulatory compliance needs. Its single workflow application is designed to improve productivity for business users across industries. Following a public launch in September, Symphony reported a rapidly growing customer roster, increased user adoption, strategic partner momentum and key executive appointments. The company has raised more than $100 million in new capital and previously raised a total of $66 million from a consortium of 15 leading financial institutions. Symphony will use the new capital to accelerate global customer adoption, address high demand leading up to its launch, and speed the expansion of its global operations. Founded in October 2014 and headquartered in Palo Alto, Symphony maintains offices in New York, Hong Kong, Singapore and London. Symphony Communication Services is an open-source, secure communication and workflow platform built to serve financial services professionals. The company was formed through a $66 million investment from a consortium of leading financial institutions and aims to provide a compliant, end-to-end encrypted platform for communities of financial services professionals to communicate and collaborate. Symphony embraces an open architecture that supports integration with third-party applications and interoperability with other networks; the core source code has been contributed to an open-source foundation and key components will be released under an open-source license in 2015. As part of its formation, Symphony acquired Perzo and appointed Perzo founder David Gurle as CEO, planning to combine Perzo's secure communication technology with Goldman Sachs' proprietary enterprise collaboration platform. The platform is intended to be cloud-based, scalable, and designed to meet enterprise and regulatory compliance requirements for the financial services industry. Symphony expects many of its investor firms to be early adopters of the platform.

Participated · Series D · Jan 2018

Dianrong is a Shanghai, China-based online lending marketplace that provides financial services to small businesses and individuals. The company offers a flexible infrastructure that enables design and customization of lending and borrowing products based on industry-specific data and insights. Its platform is supported by online risk-management and operations tools and provides marketplace lending, lending-related services and fintech solutions. Leadership cited in the article includes Founder and Executive Chairman Soul Htite and CEO Long Hsiang Loh. The company raised an additional US$70m in Series D funding, indicating ongoing capital formation to support its operations and growth. No revenue or user metrics were disclosed in the article. Dianrong operates an online lending marketplace in China that provides loan originations, investment products and marketplace lending solutions for individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises. The platform originates about US$500m in monthly assets for roughly 4 million retail lenders. The company employs approximately 3,500 professionals across 28 offices in China, including about 600 full-time fintech engineers. Recently it acquired the asset-generation operations of Quark Finance, an acquisition the company says tripled its local footprint. Dianrong also launched Chained Finance, a blockchain platform for supply-chain finance developed with FnConn, a Foxconn subsidiary. Concurrent with these expansions, Dianrong completed a US$220m Series D financing to support its growth and product initiatives. Dianrong.com operates an online marketplace lending platform that matches personal and business borrowers with lenders in China. The company also sells banking solutions to large financial institutions, combining technology with risk-management techniques. In June 2014 it launched a wealth-management product, TuanTuanZhuan, which uses backend algorithms and supports millions of micro-transactions daily. TuanTuanZhuan has exceeded RMB 2.7 billion in volume and has earned over RMB 100 million in interest for Dianrong lenders. Founded in 2012 by Soul Htite and Kevin Guo, the company has grown to over 1,700 employees and 18 offices across China. The business appears focused on scaling its lending marketplace and wealth-management offerings while partnering with traditional financial institutions. Dianrong.com is a Shanghai-based P2P lending platform founded in 2012 by CEO Soul Htite. It owns and operates a peer-to-peer lending platform that leverages proprietary technology to lower the costs of underwriting, loan servicing, customer acquisition, account management, regulatory compliance and reporting. The company's technology is presented as central to its operational efficiency and cost reduction strategy. Dianrong.com said it intends to use the new investment to support expansion in the Hong Kong and Mainland China markets. The company is backed by investors including Northern Lights VC and has received additional investment from Sun Hung Kai & Co. Limited. Dianrong.com is a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform based in Shanghai that enables members to borrow and lend money among themselves. Launched in March 2013 by Lending Club co-founder Soul Htite and PE fund partner and lawyer Kevin Guo, the company offers free portfolios tailored to each investor’s appetite for risk. Investors can choose optional investment lifecycles of 6, 12, 18, or 24 months. As of the end of November 2013 the firm had an aggregate trade turnover of more than 100 million Yuan (approximately US$16.5m) with more than 10,000 registered investors. The platform's core offering is facilitating peer-to-peer loans and tailored investment portfolios. The company intends to use the newly raised funds to support daily operations and to provide low-risk, high-return financial planning products for general investors.

Led · Equity · Jul 2013

Livpure is a consumer home-wellness company founded in 2012 that sells water purifiers, subscription-based purifiers, air coolers, kitchen appliances, mattresses, and sleep accessories. The company focuses on wellness-focused home products and is expanding into broader home categories. It plans to accelerate category expansion and product development through R&D and innovation, and to enhance its retail presence. Livpure is prioritizing its water-as-a-service offering and eco-friendly sustainable solutions in home and kitchen products. Management says the funding will help make its home solutions more accessible to Indian consumers and support faster innovation. The company received strategic investment to support scaling and reducing the cost of access to clean water.

Led · Equity · Sep 2012

Earth Water Group comprises three companies serving the water sector: Fontus Water Pvt. Ltd (executes water and wastewater treatment projects for industrial, building and municipal clients), Aventura Components Pvt. Ltd (supplies water and wastewater treatment components to OEMs), and EA Water Pvt. Ltd (the EverythingAboutWater knowledge and marketing platform offering publishing, events, consulting and recruitment services). The group focuses on water and wastewater management solutions and related products. Management intends to use the new capital to invest in better technologies and strengthen existing core initiatives. The company plans to pursue acquisitions of complementary businesses and expand into areas such as zero liquid discharge and desalination. Leadership says the funding will enhance the company’s risk appetite to pursue innovative approaches to redefine the Indian water industry. Peter Kennedy of CLSA noted EWG’s national reach, strong customer relationships and a healthy order book as reasons for the investment.